Jesus Against Christianity: Reclaiming the Missing Jesus

by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

This illuminating exploration of how and why Christianity became so radically disconnected from the Jesus of history provides suggestions for returning the true Jesus of Nazareth to the center of Christian faith.

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Theology, Christian, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book, which helps to explain why Christians misunderstand Jesus and his mission. I wish a good copy editor would have worked with the book, to make it an easier read. And I'm glad I made the effort.

[Deborah Brunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some excellent ideas about the historical Jesus and his nonviolent resistance to the domination systems of the world. It would have been much better had it not repeated themes and ideas throughout the book.

Nelson-Pallmeyer begins highlighting the violent passages about God within the old and new testaments. It's repetitive for anyone familiar with the violence of the bible. He traces the authorship of the biblical narrative and writes of the liberation from Egypt as the dominant event, and liberation from oppression as the dominant theme. He writes of the priestly, wisdom, apocalyptic and messianic narratives. Specifically how apocalypticism arose and offered an alternative explanation of Israels suffering, in that God would eventually vindicate the suffering of the righteous and raise them up through resurrection.

Nelson-Pallmeyer writes how the gospel writers, and Paul all wrote about Jesus through an apocalyptic lens, which he feels diluted Jesus life and ministry in his present, and shifts us to wait for future reward and vindication.

Jesus lived during a particularly oppressive time where Messianic (liberation through violent revolt) and apocalyptic (God liberating through violent destruction) fervour infiltrated Jewish consciousness. Nelson-Pallmeyer illustrates the spiral of violence, applicable to any oppressive society, but particularly highlights how it played out in 1st century CE. He asserts that Jesus rejects both Messianic and Apocalyptic ideologies in favour of his nonviolent movement. Jesus’ parables were subversive stories revealing the corruption of the domination system, and this was the reason for his crucifixion as an enemy of the state. He analyses several parables from this viewpoint - taking them literally with wealthy vineyard owners seen as oppressing and behaving unjustly towards the workers.

He writes of Jesus as the revelation of a nonviolent God. Jesus' vision for humanity was to embrace a vision of and create a kingdom of God on earth. Jesus was advocating alternative communities in the world, communities of shared bread and relief from debt. Communities rooted in generosity, compassion, justice, and the nonviolence of God. These communities were not to withdraw from the world, but to seek to participate in and transform the oppressive systems of the world.

Nelson-Pallmeyer concludes with his vision for Christianity now, one that has Jesus and the abundant life (which is not a good 'western'life) he advocated at the centre. He outlines how the world could embrace the abundant life if Christians took Jesus literally and among many other ideas, participated in nonviolent lobbying for social change, breaking the the systemic causes of the spiral of violence: hunger, poverty, indebtedness and inequality. He sees the ritual of communion as an act of solidarity as we declare God’s intent and our commitment that all be fed literally - with food. That we commit ourselves to embody this alternate community of God.

A provocative view of Jesus that entices Christians to live and love in the present, while working to participate in and create a just world in the future of this life.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though at times a rather academic read, with lots of themes repeated, I found it a wonderful indictment of what Christianity has done to Jesus. Nelson-Pallmeyer writes a scathing indictment of the way the Gospel writers made Jesus into "the Christ," depicting him in ways that were completly alien to the real man. Jesus was a revolutionary, against the domination system, and he urged his followers to be subversive weeds just like the plants which grow from mustard seeds. So many Christians walk ahand-in-hand with the domination system, rather than with the Teacher Jesus. I found myself renaming myself as a "Jesusite."

[Amelia and John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pallmeyer is very dogmatic about violence being inherently evil. Perhaps this is tenable from a privileged position safe from the need for it?

More support could be made for his position. I find his points interesting but ultimately undefended.

He takes a heavy focus on seeing Jesus as a critic of domination systems and economic inequity. The spiritual is downplayed against the backdrop of material worries.

I appreciated the section on economic criticism, but at the end of the book I am not sure how much Christianity Pallmeyer has found Jesus in.

[Paul Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had read it years ago.
A bit repetitive towards the end.

[Ed Eleazer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nelson-Pallmeyer focuses his discussion on the vast gulf between what the canonical scriptures say about God and what we know the historical Jesus had to say about the nature of God. He does a fine job of reading and balancing the texts found in the Bible, showing how three major threads of theology seem to run through both the Old and the New Testaments: (1) God is a violent, retributive being who has to hold himself back from killing humans in response to their "sins," (2) God is violent, but he will focus his retributive violence in human history at the end times, when the irredeemably evil will be sent to hell [apocalyptic worldview], (3)God is characterized by unconditional love [agape]. The first two strands are evident in the Bible, but Nelson-Pallmeyer shows how they are distortions created by human authors hoping for a father-figure from the sky to come save them and force the human world into order. Most pernicious in its relation to Jesus' life and ministry is the idea that God requires a blood sacrifice to assuage his anger over human sins, so much so that he went into Mary's womb and made himself a man and had himself killed so that humans and he would be "reconciled." Nelson-Pallmeyer argues convincingly that the third strand was Jesus' message to the World, that Jesus created an alternative system to the repressive socio-political order of his times and that message resonates fully in our own era. In this view, Jesus' death was not atonement, but a symbol of the depth of divine love and an complete example of the oppression of the world order.

As several other Goodreads reviewers have noted, the book is repetitive and academic, but being an academic myself, I had no real problems with that. Perhaps Nelson-Pallmeyer's problem here is that he is writing for a narrow audience of which I am a part — skeptical readers with little background in theology. I loved this book, but that may be because Nelson-Pallmeyer put down on paper exactly what I had been thinking for the past twenty or thirty years and showed me that I might not be a heretic.

[Dave Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not agree with everything in this book but learned a few things and found it a stimulating (but disturbing) read.
My main criticism would be that the author relies more on his own Liberation Theology heros than on any historical critical analysis of the texts, but I do think the book has a good analysis of the problems of trying to believe that all the bible is reliable source for a consistent doctrine of God.
"It is impossible to reconcile 'love of enemies' or the compassionate actions of the father in the prodigal story with divine threats of 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'"(p.293).
"We must choose between competing portraits of Jesus and incompatible images of God." (p. 293).
"Jesus eventually rejected punishing images of God…" (p. 294).
N-P is teaching of the God of abundance, compassion, forgiveness, non-violence and love of enemies. To have faith is to imitate that God (p. 287). To have faith in the "Almighty God" is to perpetrate the patriarchal violent God who "legitimates men's power within systems men dominate" (p. 300). To have faith in the "God of Vengeance" (Isa 94:1) is to take comfort in a power that will destroy our enemies and oppressors for us.
To have the kind of faith described by N-P requires reading the bible 'critically', abandoning the belief in an all-powerful god, and re-thinking the meaning of Jesus' death.
The usual way of getting to this point is to explain away difficult or conflicting passages and emphasis the more positive progressive "humanistic" teachings in the bible. N-P finds it impossible to reconcile these things. I appreciate and admire his passion for justice and non-violence but I think the bible is weakened by discarding everything we find difficult.

Since I am not a scholar in this area I would tread lightly in these minefields!

[Veronica Zundel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually, I haven't finished reading this - I've finally given up after being half way through it for about two years. I've heard Nelson-Pallmeyer speak and he's saying some really valuable things, but the book is so repetitive and stodgy that I just can't make it to the end. Some theologians can really write, some can't. Shame.

[Ellen]

I frequently remark that, among other things, the exclusionary nature of certain Christian sects is not following the teachings of the man in whose name the religion was founded. This sounds like an interesting read...

[Krysten]

I read about 10 pages and then realized I was never going to read an entire book about this. I am really interested in the historical Jesus but I have no attention span for theological literature, no matter how much I agree with it. It's kind of embarrassing.